A foray into the heart of social nerdiness

Random Sword Club Thoughts

Let’s talk a little about combat. While as a roleplayer and DM, I tend to eschew combat, preferring to focus on puzzles, story, and character interaction, when it comes to actual fighting, I am exactly the opposite. It’s very… relaxing to empty one’s mind and just focus on the issue at hand. Of course, here the issue at hand is “don’t lose / don’t get hurt,” but the principle is the same.

I think a large part of the reason why I don’t really dig combat in D&D is because, well, it’s not really combat. Combat is urgent, and while there is strategy, a lot is done instinctively in a second. In role-playing games, combat is really a lot of waiting. A whole lot of waiting. That’s fine in war games, but less thrilling when a bar fight is supposed to be simulated.

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Anyway, yesterday was the first day of moving beyond theory. How did we do that? By playing capture the flag. It’s a good first step to learning how to fight with a group, think strategically, and to bend/break the rules as far as you can. Overall, I think the last lesson is the lesson that has been starting to sink in the most. And that’s good. I like seeing my fellows learn new tricks. But it was a good workout, and I think everybody had fun.

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I’ve noticed overall that people seem to prefer fighting with daggers and rondels over actual swords. Currently not sure if it’s a comfort thing or a fighting style thing, or some combination of both. Also not sure if this is really an issue, since we have a current shortage of swords. Something to ponder.

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Growing up in Germany, I was never exposed to poison ivy before. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen it up close and personal. However, I may have rolled into a big old patch of it yesterday. Guess it’s time to find out if I’m allergic or not! It’s been twelve hours and no rash yet, so I hope I’m okay. Also, apparently stinging nettle (to which I’m horribly allergic) doesn’t exist in Ohio? I also had to explain what a marmot was to other sword club members. At the time, all I could remember is that marmots really like eating brake cables. I guess there really aren’t marmots in Ohio either.

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I can tell you that I used rondels for most of the evening for a few reasons:

1) I started off with a sword, and almost immediately ended up in a fight while holding a flag. It’s really hard to swing that sword one-handed for any duration of time. On the plus side, feeling my arm get tired quickly forced me go in for a kill early, knowing I would quickly get more tired.
2) I gave up my sword to Kristin to try. It seemed to take her a bit to get used to it, but afterwards she thoroughly enjoyed having the advantage of the better weapon.
3) I was taking on the scout/ranger/runner role I think. I was constantly running back and forth from defense, to offense, to hunting for Liz in the woods, to climbing trees, etc. A sword would have made that much more difficult.
4) Maybe it was just coincidence, but the sword users seemed to dislike going after us rondel users. So it seemed safer in a way to be a rondel user. I’m sure that will change as we get more comfortable with the idea of inflicting bodily harm on each other.

I agree with Liz that the “bend/break the rules” was something that stuck with us. I know I came up with some new (probably stupid, potentially helpful) ideas I’m looking forward to trying out next time we play.

Aaah, everyone’s first experience fighting one-handed. I always like the first practice where we actually start fighting, and all the rules we’ve taught go flying out the window.

Personally, I kind of like using one hand to fight, but it makes effective blocking near impossible. Of course, when I did get in a sword fight when I had a flag, I would either drop it and step on it, or place it *cough* discreetly up my shirt. My backup plan if I died when it was on the ground was to collapse on it; totally legitimate within the rules as stated by me at the start of the game!

Well, I know for my part that I was less likely to attack the rondelers (now officially a word) because, well, I haven’t really taught the group how to block/evade such maneuvers. I’m all for playing dirty, but only in a reasonably safe manner, and only in a reasonably equal match. Well, I guess I know what we’re doing next week. 😀